Saturday, September 30, 2017

Egypt should stop arresting and harassing people suspected of
homosexuality using trumped-up “debauchery” and “inciting debauchery”
charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces rounded up at
least eleven people in the days following a September 22, 2017 concert
in Cairo at which young concertgoers waved rainbow flags,
a symbol of solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender
(LGBT) people, a defiant act in a country known to persecute gay men and
transgender people.

After concertgoers shared photos of the rainbow flag display on
social media, pro-government media went on an overdrive attack and
conservative politicians and religious leaders demanded that the
government take action. Police arrested one man on September 23 through
entrapment on a dating app, a common police technique in Egypt, and
claimed he had been among those to wave a flag.

On September 25, the
government said that it had arrested seven people
identified through video footage of the concert. Several Egyptian
activists questioned the veracity of this claim, but they documented
additional arrests on September 27, when police picked up six men from
the streets, charging them with debauchery and claiming they were all
involved in the rainbow flag incident.

“Whether they were waving a rainbow flag, chatting on a dating app,
or minding their own business in the streets, all these debauchery
arrest victims should be immediately released,” said Sarah Leah Whitson,
Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The
Egyptian government, by rounding people up based on their presumed
sexual orientation, is showing flagrant disregard for their rights.”

The Dokki Misdemeanor Court in Giza sentenced the first victim on
September 26 to six years in prison and a fine for “debauchery,” based
on his presumed sexual conduct, and “inciting debauchery,” as
prosecutors alleged he was among those who raised the rainbow flag at
the concert. The court sentenced him to an additional six years of
probation which will require reporting to the police from 6p.m. to 6a.m.
until 2029. No lawyer was present at his trial. He now has legal
representation, and his appeal will be heard on October 11.

The six men arrested on September 27 are scheduled for trial on
October 1. At least two more men were arrested on September 28 because
of their presumed sexual orientation, and Egyptian media reported that another six men were arrested on September 28 in a raid on a home, although Human Rights Watch has not independently verified that report.

At the September 22 concert, people raised rainbow flags during the
performance of the Lebanese group Mashrou’ Leila, which has an openly
gay lead singer and has performed songs addressing same-sex
relationships and gender identity. The Egyptian Musicians Syndicate
opened an investigation into the event and banned future Mashrou’ Leila concerts in Egypt.

In Egypt, police routinely round up gay and bisexual men and
transgender women, actively seeking them out and entrapping them on
dating apps and through social media. One Cairo-based organization has
documented the prosecution of at least 34 people for consensual same-sex
conduct in the last 12 months. Since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
came into power in 2014, several hundred people have been imprisoned on charges of consensual same-sex conduct.

Egyptian activists told Human Rights Watch they fear that the past
week’s arrests could signal the beginning of an even harsher crackdown
on LGBT people and those who publicly support them.

Egypt’s Forensic Medicine Authority also routinely subjects people to
forced anal examinations. The archaic technique was devised in the 19th century to seek “evidence” of homosexual conduct, but forensic experts around the world have condemned the practice as lacking any scientific validity and violating medical ethics. The UN special rapporteur on torture, the UN Committee Against Torture, and the African Commission
on Human and Peoples’ Rights have described the exams as a form of
torture or ill-treatment, prohibited under international law. The
Egyptian Medical Syndicate has taken no steps to prevent doctors from
conducting these degrading exams.

Egypt is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which protects the rights to privacy and to freedom of
expression. Egypt’s constitution also protects these rights.

“Egypt should stop dedicating state resources to hunting people down
for what they allegedly do in their bedrooms, or for expressing
themselves at a rock concert, and should instead focus energy on
improving its dire human rights record,” Whitson said.

Today’s conviction of Khalid Ali, a former presidential candidate and
prominent human rights lawyer who is widely viewed as President
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s top contender for the 2018 presidential elections,
is politically motivated, said Amnesty International.

Khaled Ali was sentenced to three months in prison which would
prevent him from standing in the 2018 presidential elections if the
verdict is confirmed on appeal. The court found him guilty of “violating
public decency” in relation to a photograph showing him celebrating a
court victory after successfully reversing a controversial Egyptian
government decision to hand over control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi
Arabia.

He was released on a bail of 1000 Egyptian pounds pending
appeal.

“Khaled Ali’s politically motivated conviction today is a clear
signal that the Egyptian authorities are intent on eliminating any rival
who could stand in the way of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s victory
in next year’s elections. It also illustrates the government’s ruthless
determination to crush dissent to consolidate its power,” said Najia
Bounaim, Amnesty International’s Head of North Africa Campaigns.

“It beggars belief that Khaled Ali, a prominent human rights lawyer
and political activist, has been given a jail term simply for
celebrating his victory in a court case. His conviction on this absurd
charge must be quashed.”

The trial in Khaled Ali’s case was also riddled with flaws; the court
issued its decision without hearing the defence lawyers’ final
pleadings or allowing them to cross-examine witnesses for the
prosecution about disputed video evidence submitted against Khaled Ali,
which his defence lawyers argued was fabricated.

Two international trade union confederations sent an open letter on
Sunday to Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister
Sherif Ismail calling for the release of several Egyptian union members
detained in the past week.

The letter was signed by the general secretaries of the International
Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Public Services International
(PSI), which represents 669 public services unions in 154 countries.

The letter was also sent to Egypt's Center for Trade Unions and Workers
Services (CTUWS), which provided a copy to Ahram Online.

"We are deeply concerned about the unprecedented and unjustified
escalation of retaliation against independent trade unionists over
recent days, and we demand their immediate and unconditional release,"
the letter reads.

According to news reports, eight members of Egyptian independent trades
unions were arrested last week following union training events and
attempts to organize protest actions.

Two of those detained work for the Egyptian Electricity Holding
Company, while another four are employed at the Real Estate Taxes
Authority (RETA), including the president of RETA's independent union.
Finally, two workers with the Public Taxes Authority were also detained.

All those detained were apparently members of independent trades
unions, the legality of which is still a matter of dispute in Egypt.

The taxation union members were arrested after several tax workers
applied to the interior ministry for permission to hold a protest
demanding pay rises. Egyptian law requires all protests to be authorized
by the ministry before going ahead.

The members of the electricity union, meanwhile, were arrested after
providing training to members of syndicates representing government
administrative workers.

The detainees are facing a range of charges, including inciting strikes
and demonstrations, misuse of social media and affiliation to a group
banned by law.

"The blocking of a legitimate sit-in and strike action, as well as the
arrest of trade unionists on security and anti-terrorism grounds, are a
violation of the principle of freedom of association enshrined in the
constitution and ILO convention 87," the letter said.

The Egyptian government introduced a law in 2013 that severely
restricts protests and strikes, requiring prior notice from the interior
ministry, which is rarely given. Thousands have been jailed for
violating the law, including workers.

However, in December the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that Article 10 of the 25-article law was unconstitutional.

In April, the parliament approved an amendment to the protest law,
according to which authorities have no right to prohibit protests once
all documents have been submitted, except through a court order.

According to the annual report of the Egyptian Center for Social and
Economic Rights, issued in December, the governmental sector witnessed
almost 478 “industrial actions” during 2016, while the public sector saw
133 actions and the private sector witnessed 107 actions.

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*UPDATE: Following domestic and international efforts, along with global solidarity campaigns - the aforementioned jailed workers and unionists were all released on October 17.

Saudi Arabia’s
school religious studies curriculum contains hateful and incendiary
language toward religions and Islamic traditions that do not adhere to
its interpretation of Sunni Islam, Human Rights Watch said today. The
texts disparage Sufi and Shia religious practices and label Jews and
Christians “unbelievers” with whom Muslims should not associate.

A comprehensive Human Rights Watch review of the Education
Ministry-produced school religion books for the 2016-17 school year
found that some of the content that first provoked widespread
controversy for violent and intolerant teachings in the aftermath of the
September 11, 2001 attacks remains in the texts today, despite Saudi
officials’ promises to eliminate the intolerant language.

“As early as first grade, students in Saudi schools are being taught
hatred toward all those perceived to be of a different faith or school
of thought,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The lessons in hate are reinforced with each following year.”

This research was part of a broader investigation into Saudi
officials and religious clerics’ use of hate speech and incitement to
violence for an upcoming Human Rights Watch report. The reviewed
curriculum, entitled al-tawhid, or “Monotheism,” consisted of
45 textbooks and student workbooks for the primary, middle, and
secondary education levels. Human Rights Watch did not review additional
religion texts dealing with Islamic law, Islamic culture, Islamic
commentary, or Qur’an recitation.

The United States Department of State first designated Saudi Arabia a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act
for particularly severe violations in 2004. It has continued to do so
every year since. The designation should trigger penalties, including
economic sanctions, arms embargoes, and travel and visa restrictions.
But the US government has had a waiver
on penalties in place since 2006. The waiver allows the US to continue
economic and security cooperation with Saudi Arabia unencumbered.

Saudi Arabia has faced pressure to reform its school religion
curriculum since the September 11 attacks, particularly from the US,
after it was revealed that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens. Saudi officials have said repeatedly they will carry out these reforms, although past reviews of the curriculum over the last dozen years have shown these promises to be hollow. In February 2017, Saudi’s education minister admitted
that a “broader curriculum overhaul” was still necessary, but did not
offer a target date for when this overhaul should be completed.

Saudi Arabia does not allow public worship by adherents of religions
other than Islam. Its public school religious textbooks are but one
aspect of an entire system of discrimination that promotes intolerance
toward those perceived as “other.”

As Saudi Arabia moves towards implementing its Vision 2030 goals
to transform the country culturally and economically, it should address
the hostile rhetoric that nonconforming Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims,
and non-Muslim expatriate workers face in Saudi Arabia, said Human
Rights Watch.

Saudi Arabia’s al-tawhid, “Monotheism,” curriculum harshly
criticizes practices and traditions closely associated with both Shia
Islam and Sufism. In many cases, the curriculum labels practices, such
as visiting the graves of prominent religious figures, and the act of
intercession, by which Shias and Sufis supplicate to God through
intermediaries, as evidence of shirk, or polytheism, that will result in the removal from Islam and eternal damnation.

The curriculum repeatedly condemns building mosques or shrines on
top of graves, a clear reference to Shia or Sufi pilgrimage sites.

The
third book in the five-part secondary level curriculum, for example,
contains a section, entitled, “People’s Violation of the Teachings of
the Prophet with Graves,” stating that “many people have violated what
the prophet forbade in terms of bida’ or ‘illicit innovations’
with graves and committed what he prohibited and because of that fell
into illicit innovations or the greatest polytheism” by “building
mosques and shrines on top of graves.”

The text also states that people
use shrines as a place to commit other acts of illicit innovations or
polytheism, including: “praying at them, reading at them, sacrificing to
them and those [interred] in them, seeking help from them, or making
vows by them…”

Ministry of Education, Al-Tawhid, Student Book, Secondary Semester Program, Level Three, 2016-17, p. 104
The second semester of the seventh-grade text expresses similar
sentiment, saying that “those who make the graves of prophets and the
righteous into mosques are evil-natured.”

Toward the end of one chapter, “The Role of Reformers in Declaring
and Defending the Correct Doctrine,” in a secondary-level textbook, a
short glossary lists practices of those who have deviated from correct
religious practice. It describes Sufism as “a perverse path that began
with the claim of asceticism, or severe self-discipline, then entered
into illicit innovation, mis-guidedness, and exaggeration in reverence to
the righteous.”

The curriculum reserves its harshest criticisms for Jews, Christians, and people of other faiths, often describing them as kuffar, or “unbelievers.”

In one fifth-grade second semester textbook, the curriculum calls Jews, Christians, and Al Wathaniyeen,
or “pagans,” the “original unbelievers” and declares that it is the
duty of Muslims to excommunicate them: “For whoever does not
[excommunicate them], or whoever doubts their religious infidelity is
himself an unbeliever.”

In a chapter listing markers by which one can recognize the approach
of the Day of Resurrection, one passage states: “The Hour will not come
until Muslims will fight the Jews, and Muslims will kill the Jews.”

A recurring and alarming lesson in the curriculum warns against
imitating, associating with, or joining the “unbelievers” in their
traditions and practices. One passage rejects and denounces the Sufi
practice of celebrating the birth of the prophet, accusing Sufis of
imitating Christians, i.e. “unbelievers,” in their celebration of the
birth of Jesus.

Al-Tawhid, Student Book, Fifth Grade, Second Semester, 2016-17, p. 279[Translation: Celebrating the prophet’s birth in the spring of every
year is prohibited; for it is a new innovation and is in imitation of
the Christian celebration of what is known as the birth of Christ.]

In another chapter, “Loyalty to Unbelievers,” the text explicitly
calls on Muslims to reserve loyalty to God, the prophet, and other
believers and to express hostility and antagonism toward “unbelievers.”
It warns Muslims that by imitating “unbelievers” or even joining them in
their celebrations, one is at risk of expressing loyalty to them, and
worse even, becoming one of them.

The Saudi government’s official denigration of other religious
groups, combined with its ban on public practice of other religions,
could amount to incitement to hatred or discrimination.

International
human rights law requires countries to prohibit “[a]ny advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.”

Article 18 of the International Covenant for Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) states: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include the freedom
to have or adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either
individually or in community with others and in public or in private,
to manifest his religion or relief in worship, observance, practice and
teaching.”

“Saudi Arabia’s officials should stop denigrating other people’s
personal beliefs,” Whitson said. “After years of reform promises there
is apparently still little room for tolerance in the country’s schools.”

Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt’s
regular police and National Security officers routinely torture
political detainees with techniques including beatings, electric shocks,
stress positions, and sometimes rape, Human Rights Watch said in a new
report released today.

“President al-Sisi has effectively given police and National
Security officers a green light to use torture whenever they please,”
said Joe Stork,
deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Impunity for the
systematic use of torture has left citizens with no hope for justice.”

The report documents how security forces, particularly officers of
the Interior Ministry’s National Security Agency, use torture to force
suspects to confess or divulge information, or to punish them.

Allegations of torture have been widespread since then-Defense Minister
al-Sisi ousted former President Mohamed Morsy in 2013, beginning a
widespread crackdown on basic rights. Torture has long been endemic in
Egypt’s law enforcement system, and rampant abuses by security forces
helped spark the nationwide revolt in 2011 that unseated longtime leader
Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 19 former detainees and the family of a 20th detainee who were tortured between 2014 and 2016, as well as Egyptian defense and human rights lawyers. Human Rights Watch also reviewed dozens of reports about torture produced by Egyptian human rights groups and media outlets.

The techniques of torture
documented by Human Rights Watch have been practiced in police stations
and National Security offices throughout the country, using nearly
identical methods, for many years.

Under international law, torture is a crime of universal
jurisdiction that can be prosecuted in any country. States are required
to arrest and investigate anyone on their territory credibly suspected
of involvement in torture and to prosecute them or extradite them to
face justice.

Human Rights Watch found that the Interior Ministry has developed an
assembly line of serious abuse to collect information about suspected
dissidents and prepare often fabricated cases against them. This begins
at the point of arbitrary arrest, progresses to torture and
interrogation during periods of enforced disappearance, and concludes
with presentation before prosecutors, who often pressure suspects to
confirm their confessions and almost never investigate abuses.

The former detainees said that torture sessions begin with security
officers using electric shocks on a blindfolded, stripped, and
handcuffed suspect while slapping and punching him or beating him with
sticks and metal bars. If the suspect fails to give the officers the
answers they want, the officers increase the power and duration of the
electric shocks and almost always shock the suspect’s genitals.

Officers then employ two types of stress positions to inflict severe
pain on suspects, the detainees said. In one, they hang suspects above
the floor with their arms raised backwards behind them, an unnatural
position that causes excruciating pain in the back and shoulders and
sometimes dislocates their shoulders.

In a second, called the “chicken”
or “grill,” officers place suspects’ knees and arms on opposite sides of
a bar so that the bar lies between the crook of their elbows and the
back of their knees and tie their hands together above their shins. When
the officers lift the bar and suspend the suspects in the air, like a
chicken on a spit, they suffer excruciating pain in shoulders, knees,
and arms.

Security officers hold detainees in these stress positions for hours
at a time and continue to beat, electrocute, and interrogate them.

“Khaled,” a 29-year-old accountant, told Human Rights Watch that in
January 2015, National Security officers in Alexandria arrested him and
took him to the city’s Interior Ministry headquarters.

They told him to
admit to participating in arson attacks on police cars the previous
year. When Khaled denied knowing anything about the attacks, an officer
stripped off his clothing and began shocking him with electrified wires.

The torture and interrogations, involving severe electric shocks and
stress positions, continued for nearly six days, during which Khaled was
allowed no contact with relatives or lawyers. Officers forced him to
read a prepared confession, which they filmed, stating he had burned
police cars on the orders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

After 10 days, a team of prosecutors questioned Khaled and fellow
detainees. When Khaled told one prosecutor that he had been tortured,
the prosecutor replied it was none of his business and ordered Khaled to
restate the videotaped confession, or else he would send him back to be
tortured again.

“You’re at their mercy, ‘Whatever we say, you’re gonna do.’ They
electrocuted me in my head, testicles, under my armpits. They used to
heat water and throw it on you. Every time I lose consciousness, they
would throw it on me,” Khaled recalled.

Egypt’s history of torture stretches back more than three decades,
and Human Rights Watch first recorded the practices documented in this
report as early as 1992.
Egypt is also the only country to be the subject of two public
inquiries by the United Nations Committee against Torture, which wrote
in June 2017 that that the facts gathered by the committee “lead to the
inescapable conclusion that torture is a systematic practice in Egypt.”

Since the military unseated former president Morsy in 2013, the
authorities have reconstituted and expanded the repressive instruments
that defined Mubarak’s rule. The regularity of torture and the impunity
for its practice since 2013 has created a climate in which those who are
abused see no chance to hold their abusers to account and often do not
bother even filing complaints to prosecutors.

Between July 2013 and December 2016, prosecutors officially
investigated at least 40 torture cases, a fraction of the hundreds of
allegations made, yet Human Rights Watch found only six cases in which
prosecutors won guilty verdicts against Interior Ministry officers. All
these verdicts remain on appeal and only one involved the National
Security Agency.

Al-Sisi should direct the Justice Ministry to create an independent
special prosecutor empowered to inspect detention sites, investigate and
prosecute abuse by the security services, and publish a record of
action taken, Human Rights Watch said. Failing a serious effort by the
Sisi administration to confront the torture epidemic, UN member states
should investigate and prosecute Egyptian officials accused of
committing, ordering, or assisting torture.

“Past impunity for torture caused great harm to hundreds of
Egyptians and laid the conditions for the 2011 revolt,” Stork said.
“Allowing the security services to commit this heinous crime across the
country invites another cycle of unrest.”

The blocking of websites still continues with banning 261 VPN and proxy websites on 29 August raising the total number of blocked sites to 405, according to the latest report by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE.)

On 24 May, the Egyptian authorities started blocking news websites on alleged claims of “supporting terrorism.” In a span of 3 months, the blockade expanded from news websites to banning VPN sites, websites of non-profit organizations and personal blogs of journalists.

Among the blocked websites are the independent news website Mada Masr and the privately-owned Daily News Egypt.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) and Reporters Without Borders (RWB) websites have also been blocked.

Also, the blog of Ahmed Gamal Ziada, a writer for Masr Alarabia, researcher, and photojournalist, has been blocked preventing readers in Egypt from accessing his blog.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, and the Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Fionnuala Ní Aloáin, today raised grave concerns with the Government of Egypt over its ongoing assault on freedom of expression.

“Limiting information as the Egyptian Government has done, without any transparency or identification of the asserted ‘lies’ or ‘terrorism’, looks more like repression than counter-terrorism,” they said in the report.